Midnight Conversations
by Swamp angel
Summary: What exactly were Integra and Alucard talking about on the balcony before Seras saw them? My take on the aftermath of Integra's surgery...


**Title:** Midnight Conversations

**Summary:** Alucard and Integra talk to each other after the surgery in Episode 10 and come to a mutual understanding

**POV:** Third person, mostly Integra

**Comments:** This idea occurred to me after watching the balcony scene for the umpteenth time. Just because Alucard and Integra can never be in each other's presence in just silence and just because pairing them up in a subtle, analytical way is rather fun…

- - - - - -

She leaned back into the wheelchair, breathing in the cold night air. It was somewhere around midnight, and it was just around time to start working…

Integra Hellsing sat on one of the many numerous balconies of her manor, hardly aware that her neck was incased in a rather uncomfortable and unspeakably itchy cast. Her awareness of it had dissolved into the essence of the night.

She brought her blue eyes up to make contact with the heavens above. They were rather beautiful that night, which was rather odd, and ironic, considering she was just recovering from an operation that could have cost her, her life.

She sighed.

As if on cue, the familiar feeling of an incoming presence overcame her. Behind her, there was a distortion of shadows and a flash of what seemed to be several different red eyes, blinking all at the same time. Integra sighed.

"Typical of you," she muttered under her breath, "not to use a door."

The flecks of liquefied darkness finally molded together to form a tall, overbearing figure wearing a long red coat and a rather cool expression. She didn't need to look. She knew who it was.

Alucard.

He walked forward, his boots making a light tapping sound on the tiled floor, until he stood not two feet away from her right side. Integra did not look at him. It seemed an impulse not to. Just because she refused the sight of him, though, did not mean that she would not speak to him.

"Vampire." She said.

"Master." He replied.

There was silence, she, sitting on a rather uncomfortable wheelchair, and he, standing, emitting an air of severe nonchalance as he usually did in the presence of easy prey.

"How are you feeling?" he asked suddenly.

She resisted the urge to look surprised. The question was rather out of the blue.

"I'm quite fine, thank you." She said.

He did not reply to this, leading to the slow continuation of her answer. "Is there any special reason as to why you should be asking so?"

He scoffed at this. "Master, I just saw you get operated on, after stabbing yourself with a letter opener, after being almost turned into a ghoul by a rather indignant vampire. I think there are several reasons as to my concern."

"I would think," she said after he had finished, "that after being chained to my family's blood for several centuries, you'd rather savor the death of your captors."

"You would think," he said, in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

There was silence yet again.

A thought that had been nagging at the back of Integra's mind finally presented itself. "During the operation," she said, "I had a dream."

"Hm." Alucard replied, acknowledgement present.

"More of a flashback really," she went on, "to the time I was thirteen. My last study session with Father."

Alucard remained quiet, so she continued.

"I saw it happen all over again. Father asked Uncle Richard to take care of me, but we all know, as it is common knowledge, that he didn't. He nearly killed me in fact, driving me to the last resort of safety, that being your corpse. Do you remember that day, Alucard?"

"How could I forget?" he replied, a hint of a smile playing on his lips, "It was my first drink of blood in almost over twenty years."

She sighed in exasperation, and finally gave in to blatancy. She looked up randomly at the moon and said, "It was your doing, wasn't it?"

Alucard's face beheld the full benefit of his smile, as he closed his eyes, bowed his head and said, "Why master, I don't know what you're talking about."

She scowled and shook her head. "Don't play coy with me, Alucard. I never remember what I choose to forget…"

"True. Such a strong-minded woman you are, to be able to erase pieces of your memory at will," he said, sarcasm reeking out of every word, "but of course, I'm a vampire. A human's will is no hindrance."

She was quite tempted to scream at him at this point, but she killed the urge. Doing so would just do harm to her throat, and she didn't want that. Not with a whole night of work still ahead of her.

Instead, she gripped the ends of her wheelchair and said with a voice that was usually reserved for making serious orders, "Why?"

The smile faded. Alucard breathed in deeply and sighed. It was a rather strange sound. Like a dry pencil scratching a drawing on century old parchment.

"It was a rather strange thing, wasn't it? Remembering all that…" he said, choosing his words carefully.

She didn't need to answer. He didn't stop.

"You're a rather interesting person master. Any other thirteen-year old girl whose father had just died, whose uncle was trying to kill her, who was trapped in her own house and who had no prospect of escape except at the hands of a man-devouring beast, which she had been taught to fear and kill her entire life would have just died in pure terror."

"So I've been told," she said.

"Exactly my point. The world would be a decidedly less interesting place if you were to die." His face had no expression at this point.

Her glasses flashed for a while, hiding the pure bewilderment in her face. "So what you're telling me is that you saved me because you find it fun to torment me with your annoying riddles every other night?"

"No." he said

Neither of them spoke, each of them expecting the other to say something. After about a minute, Alucard went on explaining.

"All I did was call up one of your memories, enough for you to dream of it. A memory that showed you that you were strong. No. The memory that made you strong."

Silence.

Alucard flexed his fingers. He was getting rather uneasy. To his left, Integra tensed, for a reason she couldn't exactly understand.

"What I did, really, wasn't a crime. I was merely fulfilling my responsibility as your servant. I was protecting you from death. Reminding you that you are in fact strong, and that you were in fact capable of getting through the surgery alive. Quite frankly, I think it worked," he said, a hint of his usual cockiness and confidence coming back to his tone of voice.

There was silence again, which was in fact the woman thinking deeply of what to say next.

Finally, Integra spoke. "Quite the long-winded explanation, Alucard. But what are you really saying?"

Alucard seemed ready for this. "Simply put," he said, "you're one of the most interesting creatures I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, and to lose you would be…quite a blow."

She turned to him, an unhidden face of surprise. He turned to her as well, showing her a face of pure seriousness with a hint of sincerity. It was the first time they laid eyes on each other since she had stabbed herself in the neck, and they were speechless for several moments. Each took in the overbearing presence of the other, and each seemed to be holding back something they wanted to say…

"Besides," he went on, as if he had not stopped explaining, "let us not forget that you are my master and that I serve you. And with a face more beautiful than any woman's, a will stronger than any man's and a resolution to die for, I wouldn't have it any other way."

And he bowed. A real bow, deep, graceful, floor-sweeping….

Integra's eyes watched every move he made and as he stood back up, their eyes fell onto each other. Blue unto red, it seemed that for a moment there was an unspoken understanding between them.

"Well then," she whispered, a bit coldly, for she was never one to admit what she didn't want to, "I should thank you. By making me recall how I was nearly killed, you in fact saved me from actual death." She cocked her head as far down as it could go, mocking a bow, but with real gratitude present.

Inclined to noticing the smallest hints of emotion in his master, Alucard knew it. And he grinned.

Silence.

"Alucard," she said quietly.

"Yes, master," he replied, always at her service.

She tore her gaze away from him and stared up at the sky. "The moon is beautiful tonight."

And with a smile, that wasn't usual of him, for it was soft and rather peaceful, he looked away from her wheelchair-ridden form and looked up at the night sky as well, and replied.

"It is."

And there was silence.

- - - - - - - -

Well I'm glad I wrote this.

AxI is the luv :3

4/11/07: Fixed some of the parts up as I've been meaning to do for a while. First time I posted this before, i had done so in a hurry and there were a lot of things that needed redoing such as typos and awkward phrasings and such. I'm happier with the way it is now.


End file.
